Endemol Shine launches German formats JV

Endemol Shine Germany has created a joint venture with local talk show host and newsreader Judith Rakers.

The pair have come together to form Jukers Media, which will aim to develop and produce unscripted television ranging from documentary series, talk shows and gameshow formats.

Rakers (pictured) will be joint managing director of Jukers along with Matthais Pfeffer, who is also MD of the Berlin-based, Endemol Shine-owned META Productions.

Rakers is best known as host of local news programme Tagesschau, and also moderates talk show 3 to 9 with Giovanni de Lorenzo. She also presented the Eurovision Song Contest when it was held in Düsseldorf.

“I have known Matthias Pfeffer personally for many years, and have found strong partners in him and Endemol Shine to develop new formats that fit [my personality] perfectly,” said Rakers. “Jukers Media gives me the opportunity to be creative and at the same time to become more entrepreneurial.”

Pfeffer said Rakers was “a courageous and committed journalist who is not only one of the most popular news faces in Germany, but also a highly informed and top presenter of talk formats and events”.

META is a news and current affairs-focused producer that launched in 1992. In 1998, Endemol Deutschland (now part of Endemol Shine Germany) acquired the business.

Endemol Shine Germany CEO Marcus Wolter said forming Jukers was part of a strategy of “working together with the best minds of the respective genres and developing [shows] in small producer units”.